Thursday, June 01, 2006

It was hardly to be helped. When this:finally came out of the dyepot (after 2 days) and dried (after another day and a half), it was so durned pretty, I just had to cast on the top-down raglan it was intended for (there's more than this one skein). Yes, I seem to have caught Jessamyn's bug--knitting top-down with pretty eyelets along the raglan lines can't be beat.And though it's hard to get the true color with a camera and computer, you can at least see the very subtle variegation, which I am just thrilled with.The color is a little lighter than I expected, but I still like it, and it is still pinky-corally-orangey, as hoped. It was a pain in the bottom using the natural dyes, and trying to keep the silk from going above 185 degrees (and thus ruining its luster) was not so easy, even with my new candy thermometer. Not to mention that silk smells like roadkill when it's wet....I am going to stick to the acid dyes for my next batch, which will be all non-stinky, superwash sock yarn, and will hopefully happen this weekend.